Vaday Andrea – Bánffy Eszter – Bartosiewicz László – T. Biró Katalin – Gogältan Florin – Horváth Friderika – Nagy Andrea: Kompolt-Kistér : Újkőkori, bronzkori, szarmata és avar lelőhely Leletmentő ásatás az M+-as autópálya nyomvonalán (Eger, 1999)
The site of Kompolt, Kistér
358 THE SITE OF KOMPOLT, KISTÉR Ceramics. Taking into consideration the fact that the ceramics discovered in all the three complexes belong to the same culture, it will be presented together. Generally, it may be said that the ceramics belong to the semi-fine ware category. Both the coarse and fine ware category are missing. This category present here is characterised by the smoothness of the outside surface which is not burnished. The colour is greyish, greybrownish, dark greyish, reddish, reddish-brown or reddish-greyish. Sand, and rarely, fine sand or crushed pebbles, was used for tempering the clay. The firing is of good quality, and took place both in reduced or oxidising atmospheres. In these three complexes, several types of ceramics have been discovered: pots, amphorae, bowls and cups. Pots. In this category we place the vessels which are more than 20 cm tall and have a rim diameter of between 14 and 28 cm. We can distinguish several types of pottery on the basis of their profile: 1. Pots with a short, straight neck and rim and an ovoid body (Fig. 1). They are like amphorae, but have a much larger rim. We know today that this type is rarely found in the ceramic repertoire of the Makó-Kosihy-Caka culture. 2. Pots with slightly swollen rims, conical necks and which are decorated or undecorated with little knobs (Fig. 3-6). 3. Pots with slightly swollen rims and handles coming out from the rim (Fig. 9) or jutting out from the body (Fig. 20). The same type exists but without handles (Fig. 22); 4. Pots with short, straight necks, decorated with knobs on the rim (Fig. 7-8). Amphorae. Probably, a fragmentary vessel discovered in a pit, belongs to this type (Fig. 2). The amphora represents a well-known type in the MakóKosihy-Caka culture, being found both in graves and in settlement material. Bowls. This type of vessel from Kompolt - Kistér has a height of between 4,7 and 12 cm and a rim diameter between 10 and 30 cm. Some types are characteristic only of the Makó-Kosihy-Caka culture. These are the bowls having a, more-or-less, swollen rim inside (Fig. 11-13, 21). Another well-known type belonging to this culture is the bowl with a slightly swollen rim thickening inside with a short neck and conical body (Fig. 10). Another type often met with in this culture, are bowls with a slightly swollen rim, a short neck and elongated S-profile (Fig. 14-15). These vessels come in both decorated and undecorated forms. Probably, the most representative type is the bowl with a conical body, hollow and cylindrical stem, decorated inside (Fig. 23). The characteristics of this type of vessel (origin, typology, spread etc.) have already been discussed many times, so it is not necessary to repeat it here. The fact is they appeared in an earlier period over a large geographical area. Within this chronological horizon, the bowl with a hollow stem, decorated inside is characteristic of both the Makó-Kosihy-Caka as well as the SomogyvárVinkovci cultures. Even if the ornamental technique is identical and the decorative patterns are, in general, the same (triangles, rhombus), they occur in different combinations. The best analogy for the bowl discovered in Grave 2, is a vessel found in the Northwest of Romania at Ciume§ti - Bostanarie (Tökös). Cups. At Kompolt - Kistér, there are two types of cups, both discovered in Grave 2: one of them has a short neck and ovoid body, with a single handle that originates on the rim and joins the body below the shoulder (Fig. 24). The other type is a cup with a slightly swollen rim, biconical body and a marked carination line (Fig. 25). This last type is a foreign element in the MakóKosihy-Caka culture, which is specific to the neighbouring Somogyvár-Vinkovci culture. Spindle whorl. This is a pot fragment which was most probably used as a spindle (Fig. 17). Although spindle whorls occur commonly in the Makó-KosihyCaka culture, no analogy is known to this piece made from a pot sherd. Ornaments. Decorative techniques used on ceramics in the Makó-Kosihy-Caka culture are not very complex: they include incisions, appliqué ornaments and impressions. The so-called broom stroke design is the most common ornament (Figs. 1, 22, 18). This technique was used to decorate the body of vessels. Impressions were also used, in the form of the so called " Furchenstich" technique, to decorate the inner part of the aforementioned bowl with a hollow stem found in the grave 2 (Fig. 23). Motives of the appliqué technique include ribs and conical knobs. Ribs are not very widely used ornaments in the Makó-Kosihy-Caka culture. Yet, ribs can be seen forming vertical, oblique and zigzag lines on the surfaces of vessels. They may be placed horizontally at the origins of the rim or on the maximum diameter of the vessel. Decorative ribs also appear in the Somogy vár-Vinkovci culture, or in the next period, during the Glockenbecher-Csepel group, in the early stages of the Nagyrév culture, as well as in the local Corded Ware groups in Bohemia. Ribs ornamented with finger impressions (Fig. 18) and conical knobs (Fig. 21) also occur among the appliqué design. So far, decorating bowls with knobs below the neck is new in the MakóKosihy-Caka culture. We identified an analogy at the Glina culture settlement of Branet, but it is very far from our zone of interest. Alveolate decorations were created by finger impressions (Fig. 9). Bone tool. At Kompolt - Kistér only one bone artifact, a chisel, was discovered in Grave 2 (Fig. 26). This chisel was of a triangular form with a rectangular cross-section. It also had both a wide and a pointed end. No analogy to this type is known from the MakóKosihy-Caka culture. In a later stage, two pieces of this type are known from the Leitha group distributed in Austria. Its elaborate way of manufacturing suggests that it may have been the imitation of a metal tool.
